A celebration of San Diego's top places to work

By U-T San Diego
| 3:58 p.m.Nov. 8, 2013

Representatives from eight companies who won the Workplace Excellence Award for small businesses and the presenters during the U-T San Diego Top Work Places 2013 event at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel Thursday.
— Bill Wechter

Representatives from eight companies who won the Workplace Excellence Award for small businesses and the presenters during the U-T San Diego Top Work Places 2013 event at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel Thursday.
— Bill Wechter

About 500 people turned out on Thursday to help recognize distinction in the business community with the Workplace Excellence Awards and Top Workplaces Awards. Employees from nearly 50 companies around San Diego attended the celebration held at Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines.

Nina Woodard, president of the San Diego Society for Human Resource Management, kicked off the first recognitions of the night for the 14th annual Workplace Excellence Awards for successful Human Resource practices at the nominated companies. Throughout the years, more than 1,000 businesses in the San Diego area have been nominated by employees for this award, with the winners being decided by a panel of judges.

“The purpose of the award is to identify an outstanding human resources practice and its impact on bottom line,” Woodard said. “These awards offer not only an opportunity to showcase the difference that and effective human resources department can make, but also how it contributes to company culture.”

Finalists for this year’s award were narrowed down to 18 companies, with the top two receiving Crystal and Marble trophies. Winners for the three categories were Red Door Interactive, small business (50 to 149 employees); Alphatec Spine, medium business (150-629 employees); Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort, large business (more than 630 employees).

After the Workplace Excellence Awards were handed out, keynote speaker Mike Dee, president and CEO of the San Diego Padres, took center stage. Dee spoke about the workplace environment in sports as it compares to a corporate setting, listing four basic ingredients for any successful organization: fun, teamwork, community and opportunity.

“Organizations aren’t built from the top down, they’re built from the staff up,” Dee said. “Great leaders facilitate an environment for companies to develop and define who they are and for people and departments to define who they are. With that comes growth, personal satisfaction and ultimately, at the end of the day, a successful corporate environment.”

Employees and staff played a major part in the awards as all of the companies recognized during the night were nominated by an employee.

For the Top Workplace Awards, 862 companies were nominated in the San Diego area and at those businesses, 18,967 employees answered surveys given by WorkplaceDynamics that related to a company’s workplace environment. Nominated companies were narrowed down to 40 with six becoming the eventual first and second place winners.

Winners for the three categories were Commonwealth Financial Network, small business (50-99 employees); The Ken Blanchard Companies, medium business (100-349 employees); Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, large business (more than 350 employees).

The rise of Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego as a winner came as a surprise to its team, which was in attendance at the event. Front office employee Jean Carlos RiveraReyes, who accepted the top award on behalf of his company, was also responsible for the hotel’s nomination. He said he was reading U-T San Diego online one day and saw an ad asking for nominations for Top Workplaces, so he decided to enter his employer.

“I didn’t think anything of it at the time . . . I feel like I helped the company hugely,” RiveraReyes said. “Now other people will see that this is a great place to work, because I honestly have a great time working there.”

Asked what the recognition means to the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, Associate Director of Sales James Decker said, “I think it speaks volumes about the employee engagement within the hotel and the environment that they have and the importance of what they bring to the hotel. Without them we would not be important.”

The night’s event was a first-year collaboration between U-T San Diego, San Diego SHRM and WorkplaceDynamics. Sponsors for the event included The Eastridge Group of Staffing Companies; Mercer; UC San Diego Extension; Paul, Plevin, Sullivan & Connaughton LLP; The Servant Leadership Institute; and Sony.